The Creation of a New Musical - Part 8b

Preproduction: Workshops

(a series of articles about how new musicals come to pass)

Preproduction: the period of time during which work is done on a show prior to the first rehearsal.

This week we're continuing our discussion of the concept of the workshop in the development of a show. (For a recap, click here.)

Some more examples of types the type of "developmental" workshops out there:

• Several off-Broadway theatres have in the past taken advantage of the idea of the workshop by rehearsing a show under a workshop agreement. This allows them to save money in costs to the actors, advertising, etc., while still getting the show up in front of an audience. They've approached these shows nearly as if they were going into full-scale production: full 40-hour weeks, costumes, sets, lighting, sound, orchestrations and orchestra. And then they declare the workshop at an end and stop performances. At that point, those instances where they felt that the show had some potential for success, after a brief hiatus where they will throw money into the advertising budget, renegotiate any contracts that require renegotiation, fire/pay-off anyone they consider deadwood and hire replacements, and perhaps rehearse some revised/additional material, they simply open the (nearly) identical show.
  
• A "Broadway workshop" -- e.g., the Broadway workshop of Jekyll & Hyde -- may last several months. The actors and staff will be salaried at some union-prescribed minimum. Additionally, the actors will be entitled not only to right of first refusal (they must be offered the same role in a subsequent production or paid off), but also receive a small participation in the royalties for a (union-established) number of years. There is likely to be substantial investment in costumes, lighting, sound, and conceivably orchestration, since the goal of a "Broadway workshop" tends to go beyond the idea of actual "workshopping" towards a backers' audition (in which the goal is a presentation of the show for potential investors and producers).

Obviously the wording of contracts and negotiations with the unions is very important, not only in consideration of the expenses of the actual workshop, but for the future of the project. When you consider the costs incurred by the producers and creators of Jekyll & Hyde in not using the members of the workshop, you wonder why they chose to go that route -- especially considering the fact that less than a handful of actors from the workshop were invited to continue on.

Here are a few more associations involved with producing workshops:
Theatre Workshop
The Playwrights Project
AMSU - Composing for Music Theatre: Workshop for Young Composers

As we've seen, the unions play a major role in the cost of producing a workshop. The Actors' Equity Association still has no website, but here are links to a couple of other unions that may be involved in the costs:
American Federation of Musicians (AFM)
Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers (SSD&C)

And, finally, here's a group a stumbled across in searching out links. Although they appear to be a very serious bunch, they don't seem to actually be involved in anything resembling our definition of the term workshop; they only showed up because the name includes the word workshop. I include them here, well, basically because I enjoyed their exuberant, but ultimately unsuccessful attempts at English. (I'm sure their equivalent pages in Russian are much better.)
P. Fomenko Workshop Theatre, Moscow

Hey, go see a show!

Originally published at Suite101.com Theatre, 8/26/97

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